Alpha AMD XP heatsink S-PAL8055F Review

ALPHA is back with an improved AMD XP heatsink, the S-PAL8055F, does bigger mean better? Does it stand a chance against the SP-97?s heatpipes? Time to find out!

Testing

Testing:

Piotke's Test Setup

CPU

AMD Athlon XP 2400+

Mainboard

Asus A7N8X-E dlx

Cooling

- Alpha S-PAL8055F - Thermalright SP-97

Three different 80mm fans were used:

Low noise/rpm:

SANYO 80mm 109P0812M701

Airflow: 20.13 CFM

Noise: 21 dBa

Nominal speed: 2000rpm

80x80x15mm

Medium noise/rpm:

Delta 80mm AFB0812SH

Airflow: 46 CFM

Noise: 40dBa

Nominal speed: 4000rpm

80x80x25mm

High noise/rpm:

Delta 80mm FFB0812EHE

Airflow: 80.16 CFM

Noise: 52.5 dBa

Nominal speed: 5700rpm

80x80x38mm

Room temperature: 25°C

No case used

Thermal paste: generic compound

At default Athlon XP speed and core voltage the new S-PAL trails by 4-5 °C. You have to keep in mind that the SP-97 is the best AXP heatsink around at the time of writing. So the performance of the new Alpha can hardly be called "bad", just not as good as the SP-97. :)

The Medium noise/speed fan was used in this test

In the second batch of test I raised the core voltage to 1.85 V, this increases the heat output from ~68W to ~75W. Since heatpipes’ efficiency increases further when the heat output rises we see the SP-97 pull away. The S-PAL keeps the CPU’s temperature under 50°C and will give the end-user some headroom for overclocking.